Mecca

Garden centers, those springtime meccas, have everything and anything a gardener could ever hope for.

In the desert golf meccas, there are deals for those willing to brave the heat.

But the economic climate of the last five years, and increased competition from other gambling meccas, have made state officials move a little faster.

They opened their own agencies and made meccas of God-forsaken places."

Nor has the city run to type for industrial Meccas, reborn in concrete and steel.

But in the 1980's, college towns in many states were population meccas.

A few are well-known tourist meccas, and others are local dives.

But in a story that is increasingly repeated at longstanding food meccas around the city these days, its lease will not be renewed.

They have never been considered culinary meccas or odes to the nuances of flavor.

Winter Park is one of Colorado's mountain biking meccas.

As surf meccas go, Huntington Beach lays claim to being the original.

Entire towns that were once bustling tourist meccas were all but shut down.

Video stores were also meccas for customers.

Agents will make sure that travelers don't end up in meccas for families with children or heterosexual honeymooners.

Particularly in urban school districts like mine, "gifted and talented" programs beckon as meccas of learning.

First, they looked to retail, but the threat of competition from nearby suburban shopping meccas quickly scuttled that idea.

Retirement meccas like Florida court the "young," affluent retirees in their 60's but despair of the older ones who may need costly health care.

There are, of course, other polo meccas.

For black health-care professionals, they were meccas.

These individuals have converted what were once decrepit and isolated buildings into Meccas for desert aficionados.

People and companies have flocked where the rents are highest, not lowest, to be in creative meccas with people like themselves.

The broadcasts certify the importance of the company and of New York as cultural meccas.

Take a look at London, Paris or Rome, all great tourism meccas by design.

The show's hosts take pilgrimages to various pop culture Meccas to see if movie and television fantasy can hold a candle to reality.

The fall-from-the-bones treats rival the best served in barbecue meccas like Kansas City.